New theory about Italy's 'Iceman' proposed

BOLZANO, Italy, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Italy's prehistoric "Iceman" was not buried where he was killed, an Italian researchers says.

The 5,300-year-old specimen, whose frozen mummy is kept in a museum in the northern Italian city of Bolzano, died from an arrow shot in the back that hit a major artery, according to 2005 studies, ANSA reported Thursday.

Now Luca Bondioli of the National Ethnology Museum in Rome argues the ancient hunter, dubbed Oetzi, was slain on a different glacier than the one he was found on in the Oetz Valley between Austria and Italy.

In a paper published in the journal Antiquity, Bondioli agrees with the cause of the Iceman's death but says a new examination of objects found with him show the body was moved from a nearby glacier.

"Oetzi was buried in ceremonial fashion some time after his death," Bondioli claims.

The Iceman's discovery on the Similaun glacier in 1991 has spawned a number of theories about how he got there.

Scientists have argued about what he was doing so high up in the Alps, whether he died in combat or in a ritual sacrifice, or if he was perhaps an outcast driven from his village because he was unable to have children.

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